


Birthright

by talesofadreamer



Series: Phoenix Saga [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 01:40:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15426240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talesofadreamer/pseuds/talesofadreamer





	Birthright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is sort of an introduction chapter as to how Lillith came to be the surrogate daughter of Tony Stark and how she started in the MCU. 
> 
> The story will be slightly AU, follow some of the movie lines but will be rewritten to fit Lillith.

**Introduction**

Tony didn’t really know what to expect when he received the message from Pepper telling him that there was a woman waiting for him in his office. He had teased that if she wanted to surprise him with a stripper, telling him flat out that someone was waiting was basically spoiling the moment - but Pepper clearly didn’t appreciate the joke. The urgency in her voice eventually persuaded him to return to the office where he was confronted with a rather familiar face.  
The woman sat before him was none other than Lisette Oakley, a clever young woman he had met through college and eventually hooked up for a brief romance. He wasn’t quite sure why the woman decided to show up at his office, not until he noticed the toddler asleep in his favorite office chair. Lisette claimed that the child was his, the product of one of their last passionate nights together before parting ways three years before. 

Tony was reluctant to take responsibility at first, believing that the woman was just in need of money and tried holding this child above his head as blackmail, but the woman refused any financial compensation and even seemed insulted by the very idea. Lisette explained that she needed to take care of some things, to lay low for a little while and needed a place to keep her daughter safe. She believed that the safest place was with her father, even if it was just for a little while. No other strings attached, no other obligations beyond that point. She didn’t explain what kind of issues she was facing, not even when Tony pressed for them, but she practically begged for him to take custody of the child for a couple of weeks, a few months at most.

Tony wasn’t buying the story, not even when the young girl started stirring in her sleep which admittedly tugged on a couple of heart strings. It wasn’t until Pepper meddled with the conversation and provided a voice of reason that eventually swayed his decision. Thankful with this change of heart, Lisette promised she would return in just a couple of weeks and would stay in touch as much as possible but before Tony or Pepper could even ask for further details, or even say goodbye to her young daughter, she departed. 

The first few days were exceptionally difficult, the moment the child woke up she started crying for her mother uncontrollably. Tony wasn’t necessarily awkward with children but he definitely wasn’t used to handling another life - hell, he was barely capable of keeping himself alive if it weren’t for Pepper. Thankfully, like many things in his life, Pepper knew how to handle the situation. But it didn’t take long for the two to realise that the girl - Lillith - was no ordinary toddler.  
Not only was the toddler extremely smart and observing for her age, she also showcased abilities neither of them had ever seen or experienced. The first manifestation the two experienced was her telekinetic ability, commanding objects such as toys or snacks to move towards her by just reaching out her hand and pointing at it. The second ability appeared by accident as the young girl waddled her way to the opened doors of the defect elevator in the Stark Tower, eliciting cries of fear as the toddler seemingly fell to her death, only to remain suspended mid air and levitating back to solid ground. 

The third power the two caretakers had to deal with was astral projection which innocently showcased itself in the most interesting game of tag. Pepper was sure she was catching up on the toddler in front of her who laughed and squealed as she tried to not be it but naturally the adult woman was faster and as she reached out to tag the girl, her hand ran right through the girl before she disappeared. Pepper was confused for a moment, wondering what happened, before being surprised by the real version of the girl hugging her legs from behind. 

The two deducted the obvious that these abilities had something to do with the fact that Lisette had to lay low and disappear, but Tony couldn’t help but wonder how such a small child came into such impressive powers. Had the two been subjected to tests, much like his father had done in the past which resulted in the Super Serum that caused the birth of Captain America back in the 40’s?

Over the weeks, Tony was slowly warming up to the young girl. She was a ball of energy and happiness that amused him, while her intelligence and abilities intrigued him. He still wasn’t grasping that something so small and innocent actually came from him, but he owed it to his ego to admit that it came to no surprise that his own offspring shared his mind. His inner-genius wanted to know more about her existence beyond the obvious ‘how babies are made’ theories.  


Weeks turned into months and there still had been no sign of Lisette, not a single message. It angered him that she didn’t even seem to care enough to check up on her three year old after basically abandoning her. Sure, she possibly did the most responsible thing by dropping her on his doorstep. What could go wrong with entrusting a young baby in the hands of a billionaire that also supposedly was her father, but he couldn’t comprehend that she didn’t care enough to check up on them especially not after swearing to do so.

A few months later, Tony and Pepper had just finished putting the young toddler to bed and were planning on finishing some work. It had somehow become their routine ever since Tony guilted Pepper into helping him take care of Lillith - it was her persuasion after all that placed him in this position and he stated that in absence of her birth mother, she needed a mother figure in her life. So the two often spent late hours discussing projects and crunching numbers after spending a decent amount of time reading stories or reciting lullabies to coax her into sleep. Tony wouldn’t admit it but he was more than thankful with her help and Pepper found herself growing quite attached to the little girl as well. Plus Tony did agree to compensate the extra hours she basically spent babysitting, though it didn’t necessarily feel like a chore.

“Mr. Stark, you have a visitor,” The posh male voice rang through the living area of his main loft, alerting him to the person that just showed up at his doorstep.

“Whoever it is, tell them I’m not in.” Tony rubbed his face, trying to focus on the documents Pepper had laid out in front of him. He was tired and his already short attention span was having issues with trying to focus on what the woman was trying to communicate. Important business stuff, yada yada yada, that’s what it sounded like.

“He says it’s urgent, sir.” J.A.R.V.I.S. persisted after listening to the visitor not taking no for an answer.

“Don’t care, thank you.”

Now, a different voice rang through the speakers. Less polite and posh, rougher and louder than the soothing voice of Tony’s own personal AI assistant. “Stark. I know you’re in. We need to talk.”

A frown furrowed the philanthropist's face as the familiar voice echoed through his head, almost sending chills down his spine. Pepper noticed the change of expression and quirked a brow. “Who’s that?”

“No one of importance,” Tony lied in immediate response, he wasn’t interested in hearing what this man had to say. He had no intentions of participating in any government schemes as he had been proposed in the past. “So, you were saying something about the productions costs?”

“Stark, open the goddamn door!” The voice continued, growing more impatient by the minute. “It’s about Lisette Oakley.”

The two of them exchanged a look of surprise at the mention of Lillith’s mother. This visitor had news about the woman who had disappeared right after dumping her daughter, that didn’t necessarily spell good news. Pepper turned to look at Tony with an expression that spoke words he didn’t want to hear but knew he had no choice but to listen. “Let him in, J.A.R.I.S..”

A moment later, the door to his loft opened and a dark man entered the room. Dressed in a long leather coat, an eyepatch covered one of his eyes which Pepper assumed was not just a fashion statement. He took heavy strides closer to the two adults, His face still screamed frustration as he was kept waiting and was basically ignored for the first five minutes. 

“Fury, what an unpleasant surprise.” He considered it a personal charm to be able to fake sounding so enthusiastic as possible and still obviously sound very sarcastic. People already thought he was quite the pompous jerk, might as well act like one. 

“It’s about damn time,” he muttered.

“Sorry, I’m not a big fan of unannounced visitors late at night.” Tony remarked as he stood up, his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Or ever.”

“I’ll be sure to send in a RSVP next time but I figured this was information you’d rather hear immediately.” The man sassed back, glaring back at the man before him with his one good eye. “Where is the child?”

“Child? I don’t know what you’re talking about Fury, there’s no child here.” A mischievous smirk pulled at his lips as he lied, glancing at the strawberry blonde next to him. “At least not yet.”

Pepper had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at his sleazy comment as the man merely continued. “Don’t bullshit me, Stark. I know the enhanced child has been placed in your care over five months ago, right before Lisette Anne Oakley disappeared from our radar.”

“Enhanced?” It was Pepper’s turn to feign stupidity in the situation. She still wasn’t quite sure who this man before her was but he radiated suspicion from the moment she laid her eyes on him. There was no way they could acknowledge the presence of the illegitimate child or her special abilities.

“Lillith Maria Oakley, born June 1st, nineteen-ninety-one. Placed in the care of Anthony Edward Stark and Virginia Potts about five months ago. Exhibited extraordinary enhanced abilities such as telekinesis, levitation and astral projection while in your care.” Fury rambled in one breath, the amount of inside information he possessed surprising both caretakers who were sure they were extra careful and quiet about the existence of the girl much less what she had showcased over the past couple of months.

“Lucky guess.” Tony finally exclaimed though it was obviously useless to deny, he knew Fury always came informed and he probably knew even more than the two of them did about the girl. Heck, it wouldn’t surprise him if Lisette was involved with his cause which would explain why she disappeared suddenly. 

“How do you know all of that?” Pepper was less informed about who Fury was or what his occupation included and couldn’t help but wonder out loud.

“It’s my job to know anything and everything, Miss Potts,” He explained matter of factly. 

“So, what? Did Lisette send you to collect her child since she’s too ashamed to come pick her up herself?” Fury’s face stayed blank at his question, it was an honest inquiry for which he didn’t have the answer Tony was hoping for. “Well? Or do you at least have a proper excuse as to why she didn’t even bother to check in with her three year old even though she promised to do at least that much?”

“Lisette is not coming back, Stark.” Were the first words Fury replied with. He could tell by their confused expressions he had to elaborate, obviously. “As you might have noticed, Lillith is no ordinary child. She was born with an enhanced set of skills and caught the attention of various organisations. Lisette had been on the run from a certain terrorist organisation you might have heard of.”

“HYDRA.” The name itself sunk his heart ever so slightly, he was well aware of the organisation’s existence, even though the world was led to believe that the organisation had been wrapped up after the second world war, he had inside information confirming that they were still very much alive, albeit inactive for the most part.

Fury nodded. “During one of our busts, we experienced some casualties that were neither caused by us nor HYDRA itself. It seemed like the child and her mother had been held captive in one of their bases where an apparent experiment gone wrong destroyed the headquarters from the inside. We tried to take care of the two but they disappeared from our radars before we had the chance.” Once S.H.I.E.L.D. had gotten word of the enhanced young child that was threatened to fall into the wrong hands, they wanted nothing more than to collect them for their own safety but the woman and child had made their escape in the midst of the chaos. “We tracked the woman down a few days later when she arrived at your doorstep. We weren’t exactly aware why she chose to seek shelter for the child with you, Stark, but we assumed she was in safe hands.”

“I suppose it’s only natural to hide your child with their biological parent when you’re desperate...” Pepper mused, the child being extremely lucky in that sense that her father just so happened to be Tony Stark. At least with all the advanced Star technology, safety could be assured. 

“Is that what she told you?” Fury almost seemed to chuckle at the very thought which confused the two. “I’m almost relieved to say that she’s definitely not your mini-me, Stark.”

“What?”

“Truth be told, not even S.H.I.E.L.D. knows about the identity of her father or even how her powers originated, but she’s definitely not yours.” Tony wasn’t sure if he felt relieved, saddened or extremely betrayed by those words. Over the last couple of months he had been bonding with this young girl under the impression that she was his, feeling an unfamiliar sense of responsibility for his own mistake and the slight urge to make true to his oath that he would be a better father than his own. Realizing that this was all just a ruse to coax him into taking in this random child, risking the threat of a terrorist organisation by protecting an enhanced human being, felt like a bittersweet betrayal. 

“So where is her mother, then?” Pepper inquired as Tony let the previous revelation sink in. Sure, she could understand that picking someone with such advanced technology and security in his possession as a safe haven for a child hunted down by terrorists was a clever idea in some way, but regardless of the situation, the child needed to be with her biological parents.

“After she left the child in your care, we decided to keep track of her and see if we could convince her to come with us for their own protection. But before we could get to her, HYDRA did.” There was almost something dramatic about his pause, as if he was already preparing the others for what was to come. “She completely disappeared from our radar for months, but we eventually managed to track her down. Unfortunately, HYDRA didn’t take kindly to runaway prisoners and especially not with the child out of their reach. This is the footage we retrieved from the camera’s in the base.” 

Fury pulled out a device and with a press of a button conjured up a video of a familiar woman tied to a chair in the center of a dark room. Her hair stuck to her sweat covered face as intense bruises and cuts were obvious all over her body. Her body seemed limp, hunched in the seat and only held up by the restraints that kept her in place. Her face for as much as was visible was pale and worn out, bags and circles decorating her pinched eyes. Two men approached the slanted woman and stopped on either side of her. They both held objects in their hands that were not recognisable at the moment. One of them leaned over and spoke to the woman in a language neither Tony nor Pepper could understand but did recognize to be German. They commanded something but Lisette refused to answer, she merely spit in the face of her captor which earned her a loud and painful smack across the face that caused both Tony and Pepper to flinch. The woman hung her head as she recovered from the punch, listening helplessly as her captors continued to yell at her. The more she refused to reply, the more they lashed out at her physically until they finally had enough and pulled out the objects they held when they entered. It now became clear that they were armed with some sort of taser, the blue bolt of electricity radiating from the tip as they menacingly circled around their victim. An excruciating cry elicited from the woman, echoing through the hollow room and ringing through their ears as the two pressed the source of electricity to her bare skin. She struggled and screamed in pain as they refused to let out.

Pepper’s hands shot to cover her face, the sight and sound of the torture shattering her heart and making her nauseous. Tony, too, had a hard time watching the scene before him. He had known Lisette Oakley for a long time and admittedly spent several passionate moments with the young woman which is why he considered it plausible that the child she had so desperately bestowed upon him was of his own flesh and blood. 

Fury cleared his throat as he ended the video of the torture which he knew still went on for several more painful minutes, but they had gotten the point. “When we finally located the base and established a rescue mission, it was already too late.”  
“So what happens to the girl?” Pepper shakily asked, swallowing harshly as she tried to forget the scenes she just witnessed. With the mother gone, surely HYDRA would try to track down the child as she was obviously an important part of their plans - in the wrong hands, who could tell what this extraordinary girl was capable off at a later age. She was basically an orphan now, too.

“We need to ensure that she doesn’t fall into the hands of HYDRA, especially not without knowing her full potential and the plans they should have with her.” Fury explained. “We’ll keep her under our supervision, raising her while monitoring and training her powers. As much harm she is capable off in the hands of HYDRA, she could become quite the asset for protecting the world in the future.”

Of course, Tony had thought. In that aspect, S.H.I.E.L.D. was no different from HYDRA in wanting to harness the child’s powers for their own cause. Sure, they weren’t a terrorist organisation planning to take over or destroy the world, but that didn’t take away from the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. weren’t above using a child to do their bidding and considering more of a weapon than a child or even human. 

“But she’s so young, she needs parents. She needs a family to raise her, shouldn’t that matter more than what her powers can and cannot accomplish?” Pepper did understand how important the right development and intentions of such an unknown power source was, and maybe it was just her womanly or even motherly instincts talking, but she couldn’t help but feel sorry and worried for the toddler who was now left without a family to lean on.  


“We have no information on any relatives from her mother’s side and since her biological father is a mystery even after countless of DNA tests-” Tony and Pepper decided not to question how they managed to retrieve samples of DNA to run tests on if they hadn’t been able to contact the two while they were on the run or still on their radar. “She has no family to care for her.”

“She has me.” 

Both heads turned to the billionaire, Tony had been awfully quiet ever since Fury explained what happened to Lisette and both had expected him to be at least relieved that he had no further obligations of taking care of this child. But the truth of the matter was, even though he was reluctant and perhaps even a tiny bit afraid of the idea that he was responsible for such a small child, he had grown used to the idea of being a father figure and of having a child. It was an awkward adjustment but over the course of the last five months he admittedly grew quite attached to the young child and even though she was not a product of his own DNA, that didn’t mean he couldn’t accept her as his own. He had already seen enough development in the small child to deduct that she was quite smart for her age, with great educational potential of rivalling his own genius mind. It would only be natural that he would foster her, even if it was just for the sake of challenging her intelligence. Not to mention the fact that her enhanced abilities had him curious and he felt the need to discover and explore more about their origins. Obviously Lisette trusted his capabilities enough to leave her child in his care, he somehow felt like he owed her that much.  


“I just said you are in no way related to the child, Stark. She is not your responsibility.”

“Actually, she is.” He replied almost matter of factly as he turned to look at Fury with his signature smart ass expression. “Lisette placed her in my care, we may not be related by blood but her blood relative trusted me with her wellbeing. So, I’ll sign off as her legal guardian. I’m sure your guys can make those arrangements to make it official, hand me the papers and I’ll sign them no questions asked.” 

“You’re honestly offering to take care of someone else's enhanced child who quite possibly could pose a major threat to humanity the older she gets?” Fury was unsure what to think of his words, he had definitely not expected this to come from the smartass billionaire with quite the irresponsible reputation. 

“What can I say? I’ve grown attached to the kid.” He merely shrugged in reply. “Like a puppy.”

Pepper groaned softly at the subtle comparison of the young girl with a puppy, but she had to admit she was surprised he was actually offering to take responsibility for the child. 

“Are you even capable of taking care of a person with such enhanced abilities?”

“Nope.” Another shrug followed his reply. “But neither is S.H.I.E.L.D. and I doubt raising her in a laboratory where people around her treat her as nothing more but an experiment or a weapon won’t do her any good in terms of not wanting to destroy humanity later in life.” 

Fury didn’t want to admit that Tony was right, but he did see a reasonable point in his explanation. “You will keep track of her development and send in a report of her abilities on a weekly basis. If any new abilities manifest or grow out of control, you inform us and if we see any reason for concern, we will bring her back to the safety of our base.”

“Fair enough,” He shrugged, sending in reports was easy enough and it didn’t mean he was planning on reporting on every little detail if he didn’t feel like it. “Now if that is all, can you please get the hell out of my home?”

Fury informed Tony that he would send in some legally binding documents the following morning, so that he would legally be signed off as her guardian for any and all organisations, then departed.

Tony chose not to tell Lillith about her mother just yet, she was far too young to understand what was happening in the first place. She would find out eventually, when she was old enough to comprehend what death meant and to understand how special her powers made her.

The next two years, Tony discovered how capable he really was of being a father. Though it was tough combining raising a daughter and his company, with the help of Pepper and J.A.R.V.I.S. among other close people he trusted, he somehow made it work.  


Over the years, Lillith grew into a very smart young girl who seemed in full control over her powers. She was mischievous, stubborn and often times hotheaded, if they didn’t know better people could have sworn she actually was related to Tony as they shared so many similarities. The fact that he wasn’t her real father was not kept as a secret from Lillith, but she found out by herself that he was just her legal guardian. That didn’t seem to stop her from seeing him as a legitimate father figure and with the time she spent with Pepper when Tony was either too busy or desperate, she considered her as a surrogate mother. It wasn’t until her tenth birthday that Lillith found out what happened to her mother - partially at least. She was told that her mother had died but the real cause was never explained. Lillith didn’t need to know how her mother was tortured and killed by a terrorist organisation for the sake of protecting the child’s life. And for the longest of time, Lillith was content with that answer.

For years, Tony dedicated every free moment to exploring her capabilities. He challenged her mind and her intelligence with all kinds of tests which she breezed through. He also tried to explore the extent of her powers, how much was she capable to do with her telekinetic powers, could she trigger them without flinching or did she need gestures to enable it to work? Could she only levitate above the ground or was she capable of actual flight? How many projections of herself was she capable of creating at the same time, what were the lengths with which she could project them. Could she project other people? And most of the progress, Tony penned down in the reports he send to Fury. Most of it, but not all. 

Another challenge Tony faced established itself on the night of her tenth birthday. He was in his lab, working on some new tech for the company when J.A.R.V.I.S. alerted him of some suspicious heat signals he picked up from the floor where Lillith’s room was located. The closer Tony got to her room, the higher the temperature felt which made him fear for the worst. He worried that some sort of short circuit had sparked a fire and wasted no time running in to safe his surrogate daughter. 

What he found, however, was nothing like he had imagined. Inside the room was his little girl, tossing and turning underneath the covers of her bed as she clearly was plagued by a nightmare. Her bed was surrounded by a sea of flames that dangerously swirled around the room as objects were suspended mid air. As everything else in the room seemed to scorch away, the bed and the girl were miraculously untouched, protected by a veil of light blue that almost served as a forcefield around her. A quick scan by J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him that the energy and heat signals originated from the young girl. Tony didn’t know what to do, the moment he tried to get closer to Lillith, to attempt to wake her or protect her, the flames shot up like a protective wall. Tony ordered the sprinklers to turn on and douse the flames but they didn’t seem to die down, leaving him with the only option of trying to wake her up by yelling her name. 

LIllith let out an excruciating scream as she finally awoke from her nightmare, shooting up as the flames disappeared almost immediately followed by the loud crash of the suspended objects dropping to the floor. As Tony rushed to comfort the now crying and frightened girl, he couldn’t help but frown at what he had just seen. Lillith had never showcased any of these powers, except for the telekinesis with which she could lift and move objects without touching them, meaning that they must have just manifested. He couldn’t quite make out what Lillith was saying about her nightmare through all of his sobbing, but for now that seemed the least of his problems. One thing was for sure, though, he wasn’t planning on reporting this to Fury. Not until he had gotten to the bottom of this.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Lillith continued waking up in cold sweat every night after experiencing nightmare after nightmare. Tony could only assume this was because most of her powers seemed to originate from her mental capability, it could easily alter or at least distress her subconscious and create the demons and voices she claimed followed and plagued her at night. All the more reason to continue exploring her abilities to learn exactly how her powers were triggered and work on a way to control them, especially as they were tied into her emotions. 

After weeks of practice, Lillith was able to conjure up flames at will, as well as protect herself with the same force field that shielded her from the flames the first night. But her powers came with quite the toll as her body tried to fight whatever it was that drained her mentally and even physically, the girl eventually fell ill with a fever most people would not survive. At the height of her fever, her body temperature seemed to have been risen almost three times what a normal human body temperature should have been, and yet she still suffered through. 

Tony needed to find a way to keep her powers in check, something that could aide her blood cells to either absorb or contain whatever was manifesting inside her and spent days and days on end trying to come with some sort of serum that could possibly accomplish just that. He took the basic idea of the Super Soldier serum that was resulted in the creation of Captain America, and altered the recipe with chemicals and sorts until he finally found something he believed was going to work. He still had not reported anything to Fury, in fear of the child being taken away and used for government experiments instead, and figured he only had one chance to test of his serum would work. 

He injected Lillith with the serum he invented to suppress some of the manifestations within her body, in hopes of it helping to contain and control her powers and take down the fever that seemed to torment the young girl. The effects of the serum were almost instant, the girl’s temperature dropped at an alarming speed and with it, her heart rate. For a moment it seemed like Tony had made a mortal mistake, when the girl suddenly woke up and seemed absolutely fine. Although it posed as a mystery, it seemed like his suppressors had worked after all.

Lillith had to learn how to live with the suppressors, taking it like a diabetic had to live with insulin shots, though he had changed the dosage so that they would only help make controlling her powers easier. The serum also seemed to take care of the nightmares that plagued her at night.

The following years, Lillith continued to explore and control her powers and capabilities under the watchful eye of Tony who selectively reported back to Fury about her progress. All the while he continued to challenge her brain with the full intention of establishing a proper heir to the Stark company if he ever decided to quit. 

As the years gone by, more challenges crossed their paths, Lillith had proven to be a great help in the creation of the first Iron Man suit and slowly a superhero was born. Lillith was all the more excited of Tony being considered an actual superhero and mused about the idea of being his trusted sidekick but the more she pressed the idea, the less enthusiastic Tony was about it. After all, with his newfound suit and responsibilities, all eyes were on him which put him on the terrorist radar. If he brought her along, HYDRA would be able to track her down in no time, not to mention the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. would be exposed to the abilities he casually forgot to report about.

Unfortunately, destiny soon called for her assistance as Nick Fury saw no other choice but to set the Avengers program into motion as evil forces from galaxies far, far away threatened their every existence. Earth needed its mightiest heroes at their disposal and that included a certain Iron Man and (lovingly dubbed) Phoenix.


End file.
